I absolutely love this film... in fact it is my favourite film. It's hard therefore to come to terms with some of the less than stellar reviews here, although ultimately we all have differing tastes and I'd be the first to admit that this is not for folk who require lots of action or who are intolerant of romantic drama. However I would argue that it is a film of considerable depth and even importance. In Japan, this film has long sat in the "Kinema Junpo" list of greatest movies of the twentieth century... at number 3, beaten only by Ozu's "Tokyo Story" and Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai".
The director, Mikio Naruse, is often referred to as the "other" great director of the postwar "golden age" of Japanese cinema, alongside Ozu, Kurosawa and Mizoguchi. His films are emphatically not for action junkies, being closest in pace and themes to those of Yasujiro Ozu, although lacking Ozu's distinctive flair for visual composition. They are however characterised by what is often referred to as "naturalistic pessimism", in which their usually female protagonists generally engage in an ultimately futile battle against the hand that fate has dealt them. So, another demographic that will not enjoy his work are optimists. Most of his films are in closed domestic or "water trade" (hospitality) scenarios and focussed relentlessly but fatalistically on familial dysfunction, together with the material imperatives of money and it's scarcity.
"Floating Clouds", or "Ukigumo", is however the one Naruse film that has managed to appeal to a wider audience than most of his work.
On the surface, this is simply a romantic melodrama involving very flawed human beings.. but one which is rooted in the Japanese experience of conquest, war, defeat and occupation. It powerfully conveys the grim realities of the occupation years, but also hints at colonial guilt and the emotional costs of national defeat. As in all Naruse films, money and material hardships are never far from the focus.. but into this is this... well, love story. Or hate story. Or tale of self-loathing. It is an adaptation of a novel by Fumiko Hayashi, who appears to have shared Naruse's pessimism about life, since the director adapted several of her stories for the screen and even made a filmic biography of her ("A Wanderer's Notebook", aka "Her Lonely Lane", 1962).
This film has a far more open feeling than one usually gets with Naruse. There is more outdoor shooting and a far wider variety of sets. Ranging from the humid jungles of "Indo China" (Vietnam) through a cold and ruined Tokyo to a Southern seaport on Kyushu (Kagoshima) and a rain drenched island on the edge of the archipelago, there is no more peripatetic Naruse film. There are more actors too, although the focus never strays from the two principals, "Yukiko" (Hideko Takamine) and "Tomioka" (Masayuki Mori).
A huge part of this movie's appeal lies in the performances of Takamine and Mori. Hideko Takamine was one of the three greatest mid-century female Japanese actors, alongside Setsuko Hara and Kinuyo Tanaka, and enjoyed an extraordinary level of affection from the public over a career that began as a very young child in the 1920s and ended in the late 1970s. Here, she is magnificent.... it is simply hard to believe that what you are watching is "acting". Every feeling she displays.. and there are many.. is utterly visceral and totally believable... while Mori, unquestionably one of the most accomplished of Japan's male cinema actors, also gives one of the greatest performances of his career.
I read that Takamine was originally reluctant to accept the role of "Yukiko", but Naruse's insistence has left us with what is undoubtedly one of the greatest performances in all of Japanese Cinema. She had an extraordinary facility for "silent emoting" that is best seen in her work for Naruse, and emphatically so here. Watch out for the "kiss scene", and her breathtakingly powerful yet wordless reaction.
There are some strong supporting performances as well from Daisuke Kato, Isao Yamagata and Mariko Okada, and some wonderful little vignettes that are best withheld in the interest of avoiding spoilers, but which help imbue the film with it's powerful sense of time and place. Like Kurosawa's "Rashomon" this film deploys "back and forth" time shifting to tell a tale that largely takes place in the immediate postwar period, but also harks back to a colonial experience prior to Japan's defeat.
It is to my eyes a fabulous tale, enacted to the highest standard, and within the context of the immediate postwar moment. It holds a special place in the affections of many Japanese precisely because of the exemplary melding of history and emotion. However, even though this is as frenetic and action packed as a Naruse film ever gets, it still demands, and rewards, patience. These films were made for a more reflective and less distracted audience than the typical modern cinema crowd, and that includes those of Japan. By the second half of the 1960s, the "golden age" was over, with the film-making of the old masters like Naruse seen as too slow and anachronistic. What a legacy though.... If you have seen and enjoyed "Tokyo Story" (aka "the greatest Japanese film ever made"), then try this.... More melodramatic, certainly, less distinctive visually, but with an epic scale, always measured and beautifully acted... and speaking far more directly to the long national agony of Japan under militarism and occupation.
